Competition "Social Network Style"

What is your social strategy? Do you have a social strategy? There are many ways  to start your social campaign, but really only one that will work, yours. There are a few models I have seen lately,

Flattery?
It is said that Burger King does not do extensive location research, and just plops a new Burger King next to a McDonalds. Micky D's does all the work and BK's copies.  Imitation IS the highest form of flattery, and being first to market costs money. But being first, and tailoring your strategy to your end goal is like a custom fit suit. Sure, the guy down the street can buy Armani after you do, but if he doesn't get it tailored, he might as well have gone to the Salvation Army and picked something up there. I have seen many of my competitors copy what we do, for me it's a symbol and alarm to change and find something new to do.  New ideas have a shelf life, and although they do things differently than you do, because they didn't create it, it will not last too long.

Slander...
I'll just say it now - bad mouthing is a way to compete that is well used. Digs in tweets, back handed status updates, but do they really help?  I am no Pollyanna, and taking the higher road is a tough one some times. People are not always honest, nice and some don't have any good will in their body. It's amazing as a bystander to watch people latch to the dynamic person, constantly flattering them and you know otherwise. I will tell you one thing from my short tenure in a small town. No one cares what your opinion really is, trust me. They want to be fluffed and folded and loved. Keep your slander to a minimum, it's ugly and will bite you in the butt one day.

Partnership
This is my personal favorite.  It's positive, it's community building, it's good for the local economy.  The one thing you have to keep in mind when you are using this strategy, is making sure that you both (or more) benefit from the marketing program.  If you do, you will see your referrals go straight through the roof.  Think about it, if I always win from a referral to my next door neighbor, then I am very likely to do it, and they will reciprocate - it's a constant reminder that right around your corner, there are businesses to support.

Let's think of some ways to make this work.  I have a wine bar, and there is a bakery across the street. We both do catering, and work with weddings.  Every time I do a quote, I offer the bakery's services and products as add ons to our package. We hope that they do the same, but I am pretty sure that he hasn't thought about it in the same way - it's an unbalanced relationship.  Now down the street, there is a new bar. They have food as well and are the biggest newest thing - they not only give no corkage fee to people who buy wine at our place and bring it there, but they refer people when there is a line.  We in turn take calls when tables are available, and refer people there for after hours.  It's much more reciprocal, and stops the "wars" that people try to start between businesses.  It's like they want us to fight, but we don't. I spend time going there in my off hours.  It's as good as two competitive businesses are going to get, and I think it's the right thing to do. But how can we apply it in Social Media? I check in there every time I go, and share it with our followers. I link to their pages on our town page that I manage, and suggest it to people as a tip when they check in.  I will start working with them for reciprocal ideas.

Can you think of businesses that you can work with on your street? In your area?  Share your experiences - I can always learn more!

Get off my lawn!

This blog entry is more of an etiquette lesson. But I will put it in real terms too. Imagine that the guy painting your house, put a sign in your front yard without telling you.  Or the guy running for office put his bumper sticker on your car without asking you if you supported him, or would even want the sticker.
That's what it's like when someone posts their ad to your pages and accounts without consulting you.  It's an invasion of privacy, and potentially an attack on your brand.

I manage several Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and the whatnot. When someone posts to my page (other than a customer) trying to promote their band, art, business without consulting me - I delete it. Plain and simple, across the board, I delete it (or hide depending on the system). I then message them what they can do to cross brand with us and wait for them to communicate back.  Most of the time, it's spam. It's like when people post their events on the outside of my windows at the wine bar, I take them down.  It's actually even against a public ordinance, so I can't be the only one that feels this way.

So why do I write this? Not to be a nag, but there are ways to cross market that aren't trespassing on others pages. Basically it comes down to figuring out the commonality between your two companies/organizations - For example: If you have an event, and you would like to tell my company's customers about it, see how it can compliment my traffic that evening and maybe get us more customers because your event brings them in town.  Remember, my company worked hard to get that customer base - you are borrowing it. Cross-marketing is an amazing way to get people together from similar backgrounds.  I am on the board of our Village Association, and we constantly are trying to work to get people to the Village to experience all of the businesses and sites.  It's not easy to make it look cohesive, but when it works, it works well.

Short blog today - moral of the story - don't advertise your interest on other people's pages without their nod.  End of message :)

I call Bull$hit!

Bank of America made a big mistake this year.  They thought they could charge a minor fee to their customers, and it would be ok. People started realizing how much this minor charge would be - and were probably quite offended that their tax dollars were spent to bail this bank out just a few months earlier and posted the cry foul all over Facebook, Twitter - and it made the news.  Some time afterwards (and really not quick enough to be a marketing ploy executed well if you ask me) BoA changed their tune and took that idea of fee away.

Now, this week, Verizon pulls the same crapola. Two to five days after, they change their tune. This my friends in my opinion was a coattails marketing ploy.  They got free press all over the place. Sure it looks bad - but none of us remember half the things on the top 10 events of 2011 - this gets a burst of press energy.  That is priceless.  I still call BS though on this one - it was weak.

Not really a blog today - I need to get the bar all pretty for New Years and watch other people drink and have fun - so thought I would call BS and walk away today! Happy New Year :)

EVERYTHING ON SALE!!!

This blog is about human nature.  Everyone wants a bargain. Everyone is looking for a deal.  It's Black Friday and people were camping out, missing dinner with loved ones to get a bargain on a TV or an iPad.

It works though - I saw tents outside of our local Target last night.  We can debate how we should be focusing on one and other, and that the "reason for the season" is being forgotten, but brass tax people, if it wasn't wanted, this marketing tactic would not work.

Since everyone wants a deal, sites like Groupon, Travelzoo, Yelp, Amazon.com Local and Google Offers have all sprung up to save people money and give you a little change back for your trouble.  Yeah, you hear from my tone, that this is not really that supportive of the little guy in most cases.  My first experience with this deal was with a local radio station... they offered me these coupons that would pay for $3000 worth of advertising. It would "benefit" me because it would come in slowly, and would bring in traffic.  This is what happened:

• No where in the document, did they say they were going to discount my gift certificates and that people would be paying $5 for $10.
• They sold more than my contract expected
• These "gift certificates" are still coming in two years later
• Customers rarely tip the waitresses on what they spent before the gift certificate
• People constantly try to use them all and dicker
• New business was not created, because these customers were not our market

So then, I looked at Travelzoo.  They made a deal up from our menu, halved  it and told us we would get 60% of the sale.  So, math people.  Our Food/Wine goods costs are around 50%, add all the wonderful things like rent, lights, heat, employees, insurance... we have a slight margin.  So Travelzoo is asking us to lose money on the deal to get bodies into our restaurant - that is a SHORT TERM GAIN - and an overall loss.  Again, this is what I should be expecting from our Radio Ad:

• Loss of revenue
• Customers outside of our target
• Employee morale hit

So, I decided, it was to big a commitment to too large an audience to experiment.  So I went to Yelp and played with their deals. They are the same commitment (they are all the same, 50% off, and they take a cut), so I wanted one that I could experiment with, turn off, modify, and play with our internal systems. So this is what I did:

• Made it so it was very clear you could not use more than 2 at a time
• Modified our POS to add gratuity when the cert is used to cover  the employees
• Asked for them to be presented at beginning of the meal

The third bullet is super important.  This is why... This whole discount idea, really replaces my print advertising budget.  Unlike the snail-mailed coupons, that look kinda cheap, these sales online feel like a bargain for people to have an extravagant night out.  My servers need to know when someone has these coupons so that they can:

• Make sure that their experience is so good that they come back (build loyalty)
• Take the time to share what is great about the menu and the wines, and get them to have a big night out on their savings (upsell, because the majority of couponers that came in, don't spend more than the coupon)
• Get them to have something that brings them back in a timely manner (we have dated coupons to get them back within 2 weeks)

This seems to be working.  I am working on a training plan for new employees. After my Yelp training, I was ready for Travelzoo (http://www.travelzoo.com/local-deals/California-Central-Coast/Restaurant/8371). We started this week - our sale expires soon.  I will give you updates on how we have been working, and the issues we have seen so far.  I think you need to go into this with a plan.  I worked with my Chef on how much traffic we could handle, I am printing special menus from a suggestion from another business that did this.  Overall, we keep repeating the goal:

Get the customer to become a repeat customer.

I warn against the TV and Radio deals. You see no cash come into your business at all.  It's a trade for advertising, and in this economy - cash (even if just covering costs) is king. Take a look at each program closely before you consider them.  They pay in different intervals, and some (Groupon) has not been paying quickly.  Check them out, and ask for local references. That was the best thing we did after our Radio debacle.

Have you worked with these deals?  What's your advice?  Like us on FB at: http://www.facebook.com/SocCentral and get into the conversation!

I can make you rich... really.

Uh huh...

Every day at my bar I get at least two cold calls and at least one walk in that tells me how I am messing up my online presence and how they can bring in hundreds of people into my establishment if I just let them take over my social networking and website. Now, there is always room for improvement, but is that how you were raised to start a conversation, let alone try to make a sale?

My favorite, is when they say, "We ran a report and found TONS of errors on your site, and that they can fix them for you for a nominal fee" or even, "Whoever designed your site didn't know what they were doing."  Um, that person would be me, the person who will be paying for your service as well.  Starting our business relationship off like a bad abusive relationship where the salesmen first tells me that my past decisions sucked, and even that I do, but they are the only can make me better -  is REALLY not the way to motivate me, and I can't think of it working on any other small business owner. Honey, I can spot a snake oil salesman a mile away now, and mostly learning from my mistakes.  Maybe you can learn from some of them too...

1. Don't be their first customer.
• Ask for references... pages, quotes, phone numbers.
• Ask their references... how much time they were saved, how much traffic change did they see,
  how well their vision is being communicated online.
2. If they promise traffic and increased followers ask them:
• Twitter
• What % will be robots and what % high visibility people?
• What % of followers retweet?
• What tools do they use (existing or in house created)?
• Where will they get content for tweeting? How often do they plan to tweet?
• What are their goals for followers?
• How will they report updates?
• Facebook
• What is their method for getting new followers?
• Who will be responding and posting
• Where will they get content for posts? How often do they plan to post?
• What are their goals for followers?
  
• How will they report updates?
3. How much will this cost me?
• Seriously, we tout social media as being free all the time, but we know it costs time, and time is money.  It also really needs tools and they cost money too. Lets say it costs minimum wage in California for someone to be maintaining your interests online. That's about $250 a month for 1 hour a day to be spent on Tweeting and FaceBooking.  That's a lot of money for a pretty low hourly wage to be guiding and directing your business strategy online, so what are they doing and how do they work for you?

I have worked in media companies, as well as now owning my own business for two years.   I need to listen to what they are saying in their criticisms, to see if I hear the same thing a lot, and then change things up to make that criticism go away and make room for the next one.  After all, I  let that "horrible" website (http://gatherwinebar.com) lie dormant for 2 years, and in one week of making changes have made 5x the effort in party scheduling. What I don't need to do though, is spend a lot of money for someone who cannot show me how they will make up the cost with income like I just did.  Most can't.  I know how to run my business, today.  I learn more daily - my opinion is  - most people who cold call my business over the phone or by walking in off the street, should not have my business.

Your thoughts?

Disclaimer: I worked on a design/ad company for 2 years, and Fortune 500 companies for years before that - vision comes from within.  If you have a company telling (or even yelling at you like I have heard in the past) what you should be doing and that you don't know how to reach your customers, run.  You started your business.  You know who you want for customers, you know what you want to sell, you know what makes you money.  If you don't know that, then an ad guy or social media maven is not going to help you.  At best, they are going to send you a bunch of traffic that you are not going to be able to fulfill, at worst, no one new will come to your door because the vision they communicate is not your business. 

Assuming you do know your vision for your business, this marketing company should be able to come back with a plan that tells you how to reach the customers you planned your business for. If they can't, you can do this yourself.

A Place for Online SNARK...

 

 

UrbanDictionary -noun Combination of "snide" and "remark". Sarcastic comment(s). Also snarky (adj.) and snarkily (adv.)

 

I am sarcastic. I come by it honestly from a long line of New Yorkers that tell it how it is, and when they aren't being straight with you, they say the truth, sarcastically.

I moved to California 6 years ago. To say it's PC where I live is incorrect.  It's small town.  Sarcasm is lost on many, thought of as mean and unapproachable by some and only appreciated by a few.  Add to that, owning a business in a service industry, and it is a sword that needs to be wielded very carefully if at all. When said in person, one can hear tone, see facial expressions, and has a much better chance of understanding your gist.

Online... ooh that's another matter.  I thought about having my own personal Facebook page where I could be "me" and be pissy and acerbic if I feel like it, and have a way to vent. I thought about having my own twitter as well... *EPIC FAIL* No one cares. Really. If they do, they will use it against you. They will find you funny and awesome for 5 minutes and then a jerk for the rest of the day. 

I am not a jerk, I just have jerky moments (yup, I am human). Jerky moments in print are forever.  Have you ever gotten an email that you sent in the past thrown in your face?  I have.  Have you ever print screened someone's status on Facebook?  It's been done...  A post and a delete, is out there somewhere still - trust me.

My business was founded on buzz. Controlled buzz. I posted construction pictures, I got people excited about me buying their wine and showing it off, I invited them to the party that happens every night.  My business is based on my wine bar being "comfortably elegant" and comfortable comes from my business being an extension of my customer's home.

Drumming up passion about negative situations or people in my life does not create comfort.  It might create traffic, but if people don't like our wine, our food or feel comfortable, then it's not a marketing win.

That's the point - it's all marketing.  Know that every part of your life is your business. From going to the grocery store and running into customers, to getting a pedicure and chatting in the chair, to talking in a coffee shop, you are always a representative of your business.  If you have more than your closest 12 friends and followers online, then every account you have is marketing you, and therefore your business.

There is no place for SNARK online if you have a business.  Belittling the competition, customers, rules will bite you in the butt. Personally, if you think about it, what profiles do you hide? I hide the jerky and pissy ones.  Do you want to be hidden or heard?

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Why does social networking work? Because you are not alone.

I started a business with a lot of help from friends and family. My vision was singular, but I could not have done it alone.  People painted, built, scrubbed, and sweat to help me achieve my goals.  The best people did it because they saw my dream coming to reality.  They shared the vision.

It does "take a village" to get things done and there is nothing different in Social Media.  It's not even subtle - they call it "SOCIAL" for a reason.  It's all about relationship building.  I have been told for 17 years that I am a force to reckon with, you don't want to mess with me. My communication style in the business world was, NO first, then MAYBE then NO... In 2 years, I have gotten to pour wine for a living, give hugs as people walk in the door, and make people comfortable - BIG CHANGE in communication. Social media was a way to get a quick makeover of sorts.  I share (sometimes overshare) all the time.  I brag about my staff, my food, my customers, my friends.  I know CLEARLY that all the vision in the world for a business is nothing without all of these people, but I get to share it every day.  I use social media to keep these relationships in tact, even though I have little to no time outside of the four walls of my business.

What does 2000 followers on Facebook mean?

• 3000+ page views a day - can't get that from standard media every day
• Personal interactions whenever I have a moment
• Ability to target messages to genders, locations
• To the second advertising of specials
• Easy tool to show appreciation immediately, instant gratification to the customer
• Like watching a sitcom or the news, your customers get to know the people who make your business happen, intimately

Interaction with your clientele is what makes you different from Walmart, chain Coffee Shops and chain Restaurants.  Knowing the owner is important. Being remembered by the owner and staff is your goal and what will separate you from the pack.

"According to many, George H. W. Bush’s career was advanced by his strong habit of sending thank-you notes (an act ingrained by his mother, no doubt)."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/fashion/18age.html.

There is NO WAY ON EARTH, I will be mailing out thank you notes (so if you get one from me, you are truly special).  I have Christmas cards from 2001 with stamps on them waiting to be sent out (several people have died that they would go to, time flies) so I needed something that would allow me to say what I wanted to in an expedited manner. Social Media doesn't just help that, it is the glue to my business relationships.

My business is a cocktail party every night, without knowing who was invited, and hoping they all show every night.  Social Media is my way of letting everyone know they are always invited, always welcome, and always appreciated.

How do you use Social Media in your business to build relationships?

Bad Energy

I am taking a side trip around social media today to talk about competition.  Competition is healthy, and sucks at the same time.  Your business needs to have competition to be viable.  Competition helps you see that you need to change and grow, laurels cannot be sat on.  Being the only game in town can be harmful.  Your business gets traffic because you are "it" - competition makes you grow and change - which you should be doing anyway but can forget because you get so caught up in the day to day - but now it's a necessity because of competition.

My business has been open for 2 years.  In the beginning, I thought I could do it all. I could manage the room, cook, serve and clean it up so we could start a new day tomorrow.  It took 2 weeks and not being able to walk on a bad knee to know I couldn't do that. I hired people, I changed the plan.  Then the wine bar down the street decided to have music every night, and people decided to say we hated each other.  Rumors spread.  My phone rang weekly saying we were going out of business.  I changed my music days so our musicians didn't have to compete in the same genres on the same dates.  I went a couple times to their place on my day off with friends.  The negativity died down. I changed the plan.

Just recently more wine bars have sprouted up.  To be honest, I got a little worried about the dilution of my traffic.  And it did happen. So, I concentrated on what we had, that the other bars didn't have and I focused my efforts, hiring and marketing on it.  It worked because I changed the plan. We got less people in, but the people we got in, spent more money. 

There are a lot of tactics you can take.  I have had competitors say we were going out of business, lie to people about sides and even start the thought of a "Wine Bar War".  I am a pitbull.  My first response to all of this is negative - I want justice and I want it now.  Then I hear my dad in my head (he is there all the time) telling me "Life isn't fair, Kari".  And it isn't.  So I focus on how to make my business better- I change the plan.   If I have vendors not sell to me because they have been told not to by my competitors, I buy other wine.  If people talk trash about my competitors, I don't feed into it - it's a non-issue.

Competition is a GOOD thing.  Buy a fantastic house in a bad neighborhood with no houses comparable and your house will be hard to sell.  You want your business worth something.  If there have never been a business like yours open before, and no one else builds one like it, then getting a loan, selling the business, and even getting customers is hard.  We have had customers actually come into our business from a competitor recommendation - that's the way to go!

A friend of mine knew someone who wanted to open up a wine bar about 30-40 miles away from me.  The woman came in, had a glass of wine and asked me a ton of "How" and "Why" questions on how to open a wine bar.  She then opened her bar a few months later.  You know what - we are friends now.  We talk about our worries, our goals and we even talk about collaborating.  I think that is what this is all about.  Good Energy.  She runs her business differently than I do.  I run mine in ways she would never want to run hers.  It's a synergistic relationship that brings us to a place where as small business owners, we get to chat and meet like when we were in offices.  It's a good thing. We learn how to change the plan from each other.

As two owners of similar businesses, we had some ideas how to make the things that we both shared easy to do and even automated (we both have a geeky software background) and thought we could share that with others. Why?  So we could concentrate on what makes us different.  So we could talk to others and learn from their successes and mistakes. It's lonely owning a business.  It's nice to know you aren't alone in your experiences.

My thoughts about the people that don't want to run their businesses positively?  It's hard to maintain, no one wants to be around a negative person all the time, and it will work itself out.  You have a business to run, you need to learn from your competitors and decide what you need to change, communicate and do with your business because of the competition, and whatever you do, even if nothing - has to be with the goal of growing your business. Looking for the positive is not my strong suit - but I try daily to do it.

Good energy - send it to the negative people around you - work positively on your business no matter what is said or done to you - use the tools and materials you have been given - it will all work out fine if you learn how to change the plan.

I am naked

Titles work. They suck your customers and viewers in. It's marketing peeps. Gotta get people's attention in your posts.  I am thinking about Facebook for this post, but would love your input on other medium for your tips on how to see what has been successful for you (twitter, linked in, myspace, blogs and others - how do you do it?).

My thoughts on how to get people's attention...

• Say something out of the ordinary 
• Constantly posting events the same way is boring - there are different ways to show things off - updates, pictures, friends posting.
• Don't just post to post - if you post infrequently but it matters, then people will take attention at your posts.
• Be timely - posting something that happened 2 weeks ago or 5 weeks in the future doesn't work.
• Show a picture
• Pictures draw people in - they say that it says 1000 words, but those words are different to every viewer.  It's an amazing way to say EXACTLY what the viewer wanted you to say by them making it up themselves.
• Use a poll
• Tricky one here - I think polls stink.  But if you can get a controversial (yet benign - this is business right?) topic and some wild answers - try it!  Prizes help too...
• Make sure what you used to get attention is true 
•  False advertising is false advertising - people will not follow your cry for wolf more than a couple times.
• I am naked - under my pajamas (I blog in bed a lot)
• 
  

Making a club...

My last post was about being cool.  What is cooler than being in a club?  Clubs are organized cliques! Cliques by definition are cool!  So why a club? Why make a group for people to be members in? How do you do it so that your goals for your business and the club are maintained? Because clubs get things DONE!

I joined a board and a business association when I first opened my business. I really could not participate until I had my feet on the ground and had staff that could run the place so I could attend meetings and get time to help out with things - I am glad I stuck with it, because it's been a great thing for my company and to help build relationships with the bizs around me. I then was asked to be on a chamber board.  It was outside my physical business area, but the members of the board I knew were supportive, and it felt like a good fit - but then there was drama - and a LOT of it, so I left it before the ink was dry. Then, I was asked to join the Rotary.  I was sponsored, nominated and approved by the board.  It's a group that I enjoy because it has structure, goals and camaraderie. I am sure there will be others, but these are 3 great examples to start with.


Why create a club?

• Common interests attract people to each other
• Relationships within the club keep people
• Positive clubs with good membership invite the same to it

How to create a club?

• Start small 2-4 core people -you need workers and people with time and skills to help build the club
• Set goals and objectives - keep them small 1 core goal, 2-4 objectives that meet that goal
• Be selective who joins in the beginning - you are setting a tone and exclusivity will make the ones that want to join later, more willing to follow your structure and help out

How to grow and keep the club going?
Monitor your club... Your club has a goal, and objectives. You and your core group are now responsible for keeping it in line.  How to do that in your social media tools is important.

• Facebook - watch for spam, hide it, block if necessary.  Talk offline to people about the goals of the group.  Do not chastise! No one, no one wants to be told they are wrong - so don't.  Explain your rules, and then moderate. If you need to - change to a group, and make it invite only.
• Twitter - search for mentions, use tools that alert you. Search for your business or club name - stay on top of what people say - thank a lot and retweet as much as you can for things that fit your goals and objectives.
• Blog posts - check for responses.  Delete spam, and respond to all posts.  Yes, all.  Your blog needs to be active.

If I could say one thing about the club you are making it would be this - STAY POSITIVE.  Your club has to have a positive energy and goal to have growth, keep that always in mind.  If you have a Negative Nellie or a Drama Debbie, get them out.  The ripped band-aid hurts, but the club will be better for it in the end.

I have a secret...

Why do certain pages gain followers and others don't?

'Cuz the cool ones make me feel cool for being there.

Not always easy for all professions, businesses or even people.  Here are some quick tips on making your followers feel cool...

• Know them.  
• Even if you might not know them on the street, know what they love, who they love, what they want.  It's amazing when you can't remember a name, if you can remember their drink, the first time you met, what they were looking for that you found... It works.
• Let them know you.
• Weird but true, everyone wants to know the owner.  You have to put yourself out there.
• Don't belittle your competition.  
• Hard, especially when they belittle you, but higher ground prevails. After all, if your customer had a good experience there, or enjoyed themselves - you are telling them they are not cool by going there.  #fail on the goal.
• Thank them.
• In public, and in private.  They need to know you know how important they are to you. Thank with a note, a free sample, a hug, a flattering introduction... it all is appreciated.
• Be sincere.
• None of this crap works if it's an act.  You may be a great sales person, but if you are building relationships, you need to put yourself out there.  For reals.

I go places that have great products and there needs to be more.  The chef coming out to thank me, the waiter remembering I can't have nuts, that all makes me feel wanted, or cool.  You really do want your customers... making them feel it is the goal.

Dangers of being positive...

"The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Twitter is in low-level acquisition talks with Facebook and Google for a deal that would put the network at a $8 to $10 billion valuation. Stone tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, “We’re not valued at $10 billion dollars. That’s just what people are writing in the newspapers, which unfortunately has the negative impact of my friends thinking I must have $10 billion dollars.” "(footnote)

Yeah... marketing.  If I am happy all the time, and my business is always communicating positively - does it always have a positive effect?

Nope.

I own a small business in a great little town with amazing customers, a fantastic city that supports me, great landlords, awesome associates... it's not always rosy, but for cripes sake people, I don't talk about it in my social media (and if I do, I delete immediately -  #fail). Downside to only being positive online, looking like I live a life of leisure eating cheese and drinking wine next to winemakers, movie stars, and other peeps people aspire to be near for some reason - is that people think I am rich and that my business is ALWAYS booming. I have heard this from other small business owners - people say to them all the time - "You are so lucky - you have such flexibility!" or "It must be nice to not have to report to anyone" or "You get paid for your effort - that must be so cool".

HAHAHAHAHAHA - here is what I have learned in the 2 years I have owned a business:

• If flexibility means working 24 hours a day -  then yes, I have that.
• I report to my customers - and my customers drink :-)
• Customers are your lifeblood - try as hard as you can to make them happy - and if you can't - know you did your best.
• Good staff is even more important.  We all get tired, always let them know when they are doing something well.
• Unless you invented Starbucks, you are not getting rich or paid for every hour you work - so figure out how to save your pennies to have some time to yourself.  I saved 10-20 bucks a night in tips for 100 days to pay for my vacation - it can be done.  (BTW - this makes you look rich too)
• Ride it - perceived success can beget real success.  Perceived success usually has a strong foundation in truth unless you have an amazing Ad team that can spread it thick and well... if you are a small biz, it's probably truth.

So should you cut it out, and let it all out - so people know that you scrub toilets, pay taxes, have staffing issues or that your car won't start?  No. Stay positive.  It's hard for this black clothing toting, east coast reared girl to say it - but channel that bad energy into something good.  The more successful you are, there will be a percentage of people who want to see you fail and they are loud and nasty.  There is also a HUGE group of people who want to see you succeed, and an amazing core group who always knew you would and could and were always there!


Biz Stone from Twitter has this problem, his friends think he owns a 10bill dollar business.  Even at 3.7bill, none of that is in his pocket.  But, the news reporting 10bill all over the place lends credibility, stability and doesn't hurt his business at all.  Look at what is going on for your biz from that perspective. Marketing is marketing, even if it looks like news.

Watch your f'n "mouth"

This is not a blog on swearing online today.  Come on - I grew up in NJ.  I use the "F" word as an adjective when tired or angry.  This is about opening your big fat trap when writing online.

Your biz uses social media online.  You tweet, you FaceBook, you tell everyone where you are on Foursquare, you even yelp!

Then you have a bad experience. Instantaneously, you can post the person's name, ask for their head, and demand that the business goes under...  You don't (or shouldn't) though.  Why?  Because every account is linked to you or your business for GOD'S SAKE! And negative energy from you will come back to your business! But that twerp who thought there should be more fries on their plate, or that you should have given them something for free while paying customers couldn't find a seat, waits two weeks and posts anonymously that you are horrid, and your staff is crap - and you have no retort. What do you do?

NOTHING. (Well sort of)

• Do not reply to the person - no matter how much you want to.  They are insane, pissed, uneducated, vindictive or - ALL OF THESE.  You can not talk this person down and you will only stir the crazy pot - don't do it!
• Ask a couple customers that you respect to review - don't ask a ton - most places think of this as spam, you just want a couple, and if they can talk to the issues, the better.  Sometimes this happens naturally, but it takes time.  Asking a couple people, means that you can see updates at the top faster.
• Own the bad review - mention it on a different medium as an attack.  Show your vulnerability - it's the only thing you have - you are human, your business is all you have in some cases - this person struck your child.
• Ask everyone you know to flag the review (we are talking off the wall reviews here, don't do this for all negative reviews - some are actually good for ya).  The more accounts flag - the more chances that the thing will get pulled.
• For yelp! - pay for an ad through their staff, and tell  them you won't sign up until the crazy review is removed.  I have a feeling this might work.  I haven't tried.
• Sit down with your staff and go over the review. Learn from it.

Bad reviews get easier over time - mostly if they are few and far between.  They are a good touch with reality.  You can't please everyone all of the time, but it's our job to try.

Check out my bad review on yelp! :) -> http://www.yelp.com/biz/gather-wine-bar-arroyo-grande

Who is a friend?

Have you read The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell? He talks of people called "Connectors"  from Wikipedia's extraction from his book "Connectors" are:


Connectors are the people who "link us up with the world ... people with a special gift for bringing the world together."^[6] They are "a handful of people with a truly extraordinary knack [... for] making friends and acquaintances". ^[7] He characterizes these individuals as having social networks of over one hundred people.

Facebook and other social networking tools do this like crazy.  I have over 1500 "friends".  But, we know these are really not ALL my friends by the true definition of the word:


"A person you know well and regard with affection and trust"

Most of these 1500+ are acquaintances - some I have met, some who know people I know.  We may be interested in the same things.  We may just want to be watching what each other are doing (competitors). Some of these relationships roll off into real friendships - after all, we do have things in common, we do things in the same circles and know the same people.

"Friend" is used too loosely


I am finding though that even in real life now, we use the term "friend" too loosely. Someone we met and spent 3 days with is now one of our "best friends".  Someone we had dinner with is now named a friend in general conversation, someone we don't get along with anymore is called a friend just because it's easier than saying anything else.

I was asked last night if I was requiring someone who I barely know to make a decision between me and someone else because I didn't care for them.  I thought - "heck no, I just don't want to hang with either one of you" mostly because I learned something about this acquaintance that made them not fall into the "friend" category.  There was no drama for me, it was simple - they were not anything more than someone I was getting to know - and now I knew enough.

What is with social networking that we need to know everything about everyone - from when they are getting a cup of coffee to when they are having cramps to when they go to bed and why does this knowledge about each other make us feel that we are friends? This media has made us more and more A.D.D.  It has made us more and more in need of instant gratification. Someone who texts you at 2am just has no boundaries, they are not necessarily close and someone you can trust.

I think we just know more about each other.  Which is cool in a way - we are accountable again in an arena where we could be anonymous, and let our morals and guard down.  Maybe now, we need to mind our p's an q's and be a little more private in a very public setting.

Further Wikipedia says that Gladwell uses the following examples to describe a "Connector":

"The midnight ride of Paul Revere, Milgram's experiments in the small world problem, the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" trivia game, Dallas businessman Roger Horchow, and Chicagoan Lois Weisberg, a person who understands the concept of the weak tie. Gladwell attributes the social success of Connectors to "their ability to span many different worlds [... as] a function of something intrinsic to their personality, some combination of curiosity, self-confidence, sociability, and energy."

This is not someone that just accumulates friends. This is someone that brings people together. Someone that people want to know and want to be known to know...   I think we are all becoming Connectors without the skill sets behind it - it's definitely a skill... what do you think? What skills are needed? Do you know connectors or people wielding the sword improperly?

I really wish that we could find a different word to use than "friend" in these social networking tools - it's misused or overused and is making it hard to communicate :-)

I have great  clients, customers, vendors, and acquaintance as well as fun strangers following my every move... but only a few friends - and I adore them!

Top Facebook do's and don'ts...

Expect this list to grow and change over time. Remember, I look at Facebook as a business tool, but also remember - your boss has access to FB, and even if you block people, you may not block the right people.  I think of FB as one of the great equalizers, maybe we will learn to be polite and respectful again because everyone can see what you are "thinking" online... Some of these are pet peeves, some of them are things that have worked fantastically for us at Gather, and I expect they may work for your business.  Send yours in the comments so we might add them to the main list!

Top Facebook Do's

• Friend appropriate groups... When I started our FB presence, I friended people who sold wine, then wineries, and then people started friending me because we had friends in common and they were interested in my business.  Because of this - we have very little churn and Fan and Friend loss.
• Be positive!
• If multiple people post, keep the same voice.
• Keep FB as a relationship builder - it's how people get to know you, your business, and your product personally and feel ownership in your business with you.
• Be true to who you are - it's impossible to keep up an act online and in person for forever :)

 Top FaceBook Don'ts

• Unfriending when you get angry at someone or what they say - hide them if they tick you off - unfriending is bad juju and should be used sparingly.
• Spamming your friends list with messages that you don't want to send to the world
• Stalking your competitors list - be careful doing so. Keep to friending people that are appropriate.
• Don't fight online
• Broadcasting that you play games all day - it says at best that you are boring, at worst, that you don't work or have a life.
• Tweeting and FB the same message - you want all of your customers and links to follow you everywhere - imagine having contact with 1000's of people about your company and product 3-10x a day... if they follow you on FB, twitter, foursquare or more - why would they keep them all up if you say the same thing on each?

Got any thoughts?  This is a living and growing list :)

Check this link out for some more! http://sloblogs.thetribunenews.com/joetopia/8-great-ways-to-get-blocked-on-facebook/

Keeping up... Keeping it consistent.

So, it's been a while since I have posted... it's been busy at my bar and social networking has become something I just do, I don't even think about it anymore.  I think that's what it needs to be though... if it's difficult to do, then it doesn't get done - and if it's hard, it's not natural to you OR your business.

So, while I have not been blogging - I have been noticing a few things about what we have been doing and not doing with social networking and working on some cool tools that will hopefully make the tedium go away and my sparkling personality show through more (cough, cough).  That said - with social networking - there is only one thing you need to think about before you start, or STOP RIGHT NOW what you are doing and see if you are Facebooking, Tweeting, digging, LinkedInning(?) in a way that is beneficial to your business...

Think about this... "Is your Social Networking plan consistent with your business plan?"

Now, most of us wrote a biz plan before we started up, or to quickly show what we do as a company...  but boil down the wordiness and high hopes and bad market research to one thing... "What does your company do?" and then - "How do you do that online?"

We can use my company as an example.  Funny, after over a year in business, saying "my company" sounds weird still.  OK, I digress, the coffee is starting to work. Gather Wine Bar is just that, a wine bar from the outside.  But from the inside it's a cool little place that:

• Customers feel Gather is "theirs" (they bring in their own food, even though we serve food, they move furniture, they have weddings, funeral gatherings, first dates, last dates (ergh) and get engaged here... 
• Musicians feel they can do what they want here - new things, old things, things they have always wanted to try - some musicians play for the first time, some come after a world tour.
• Winemakers can get to know their fans on a different level - with a glass in their hand.
• Where we live is showcased - from the local wines, to the locals who come back time after time
• Some people come in looking like they just finished a big construction project, and others dressed for the opera and it's all ok.
• I get to experiment with my cooking skills on unsuspecting customers and they seem to like it.
• We get to say YES more than NO
• We throw a cocktail party every night - and want to do it for a very long time.

So, what does that mean in a nutshell? 

Gather is a comfortably elegant place for visitors and locals to laugh, mingle, party, play and enjoy each other with local Central Coast wines, winemakers, music and tasty wine-friendly Gather-made food.

 Not great as a mission statement, but we will go with it for now ;-)

So how does that pair with Social Networking tools and sites?  Well, here's how I do it...

• Facebook - I have a group, a fan page and a personal page. My focus for each is different, but all of them keep the mission statement in mind.  We try to communicate that Gather is what that message says without boring the crap out of everyone.
• We are migrating people from the group to a fan page. This is pretty unsuccessfully so far so remember, people don't like change, and once you do something online, or in your business, it takes a big effort to change a first impression.  We didn't serve food the first couple months we were open, and people still act surprised that we do a year later.
• The group constantly points back to the Fan page we would like to have people look at.  
• The Fan page talks about the cool things happening at Gather and soon it will:
• Engage people with polls
• Have coupons
• Post menus and new food items
• My personal page is just that.  It's stuff about me, what I am doing (which is often Gather), eating, drinking, who I am with at the moment...  Important note though, it is 90% positive.  I am a business woman.  People who are my friends on FB are customers or potential customers.  Bad days are not shared on FB and if they slip in, they get deleted.  We all like to "know the owner"  and as a small business owner - I don't have half the time available to me that I should to go to events and promote my business.  FB allows me to be all over my county, and across the country all at once.  I do live a charmed life in the wine industry, but no one needs to hear about the cleanup after St. Patrick's day.  No one.
• Twitter
• This is all bursts of information telling everyone what is going on, what is being served at Gather, who is playing at Gather, big events, news links to industry information, or general silliness about Gather or wine.
• The messages are different than FB.  This is so important.  I have people following in all my postings - I want that - I get to say something to them several times a day.  If I bore them they will hide, unfriend or delete me.  Where else can you have 4+ mediums to tell someone about your business passively?
• Foursquare - it's stalker twitter... where am I RIGHT NOW... silliness, but I like it - lends to the charmed life, and explains my waistline - I only eat and drink when I am not at Gather :)  People like it though, it is competitive, but conversational - it's neat, more to come on using this tool because I just dig it.

What I do on all of these tools is what I do in my bar.  I welcome you into my life and into the Gather-scene.  People have been watching through construction, while we have been updating, improving, and Gather is really their bar.  Friends back east that I have no idea when I will have time to visit, know what I am doing and what is going on and MAYBE when they plan a vacation, they will want to do and see the cool things I get to do every day! 

I own a small business, in a small town.  FaceBook, twitter, foursquare and the others really make the world a much smaller place.  When you were a kid, your mom knew what you did on the street on the way home before you got in the back door.  Social networking does the same thing as your mom's spy network, make it a good thing, welcome them into your business and your "business" and you will find the secret of how to make a local small business work in this economy and world of Walmarts and Home Depot's... it's YOU.

Content - to post or not to post...

So, you are a twitter-er, a Facebook-er, a Blogger...

You post pictures of your dog licking itself, videos of your coworkers eating cinnamon and vomiting, or you bad mouth a client or even a boss.

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?

This is the internet, people!  Everything you say is searchable, printable, and can bite you in the butt!  I actually just saw a twitter with a picture that was drawn on a whiteboard that was awful, and bordered on obscene. Let's think from the perspective of who might look at that:

• Employees/Peers - "Hmmm, I didn't expect that to go out to the world... and now my boss posted it.", "Hey, my boss posts to twitter every 15 minutes... when does she work?", "Hey my boss was twittering during our one on one... no wonder why he never remembers anything"
• Superiors - "This person represents my company to the world - like this", ""Hey, my boss posts to twitter every 15 minutes... when does she work?"
• Clients - "No wonder they can't make deadlines", "I don't want this person on my account", "Why would I go and spend money at this place, I may get twittered about", "They may be nice in person, but this is who they really are"
• Future employers - "We don't need this in our company"

I used to think, if I was about to do something that would make it impossible to run for political office, I might think twice about it before doing it... now I think you should think about the old adage...

If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all...

I am not the model for this - but I am getting better and better at it, and it's not like I wouldn't want to lambaste a few choice people for the world to see, but very few people will hang around your tweets and banter, if you are always negative or rude.  They may enjoy or think it's funny right now, but remember that what people say is indelible, especially if they can search and pull it up later...

Just a thought or two :)

-K

Social Networking Thoughts - Welcome!

So, my story online is a long one... I have been working in the social networking field since before they called it that.  I worked on the AOL Instant Messenger 1.0 team, a Music Comminity site, student networking and marketing and advertising for the last 17 years.  I recently opened a winebar.  So much drama was going on with opening it, that I decided when working online, I would only take the high road.

This paid off.

I am a NJ girl, sarcasm and negativity drips off me naturally.  But online, I have always been positive.  And it works.  It also rubs off on others and even me.  I have never been insincere when online, I have only told things that were true, and tried to always see the positive in everything that has to do with my business.  People feel it when they come into my bar.

I have a lot of opinions :)

Being in this "internet space" for as long as I have, I have seen a lot.  I have seen good businesses and ideas fail as well as bad businesses succeed in what seems in spite of themselves. I don't believe in luck.  I think that it's math... Product + Attitude > Nothing

Product + attitude must be greater than the reason to do nothing or to use another merchant, product, service...

When I worked in software, I verified that the products worked according to requirements given by marketing or the client...  I worked with upper management, developers, artists.  These people often had hard personalities to work with.  It always came down to one thing though... What they produced needed to be better than how they behaved. So if Developer X made things that didn't work, and was a jerk... then, truly he exceeded his behavior allowance.  If Developer Y was an awesome guy, but his software didn't work, same thing, exceeded his behavior allowance.  Developer Z who made things that worked consistently with no issues, had a much bigger allowance - and maybe could be worst than Developer X in attitude.

That said... I think it works in my business too, and especially in Social Networking...  Let's look at some sayings...

• Laugh, and the world laughs with you, Cry and you cry alone.
• If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all

 No one wants to be with a "Debbie Downer".  If you write nasty things about other competitors, it will come back to haunt you.  If you complain about products, their competitors, or even partners may stray from your business.  There are things that make me livid with customers, distributors, and others I work with... but I am in customer service... it's just not appropriate to share it with the world... it will come back and bite me.

So what is this Blog about? I personally think it's to dispell the myth that you need to spend thousands of dollars to get advice about Social Networking.  You can do this yourself, especially if you know how to run a sucessful business... you just need to learn to translate it for your business, and for your voice.

I am going to invite some of my marketing friends to post to this, as well as small businesses to give their thoughts and suggestions.  Will I post every day?  Probably not :)  But hopefully this will be fun for those participating and informative for the passer by.

Talk more soon :)

Kari